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DC Direct Wonder Woman Maquette

The new Justice League cartoon has been quite a hit this year, and DC Direct is capitalizing on its success with a series of 9" maquettes.

With the end of the WB stores, many collectors thought that their maquette fix had dried up, but fortunately DC Direct has come to our rescue.  There will be at least seven statues in this series, one of Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Hawkgirl.  You'll find them at most comic shops, and Wonder Woman is the first release.  Expect to pay at least $75 or so, but if you pre-order the upcoming series you will find them cheaper.

Sculpting - ***1/2
The sculpt work on this is extremely nice, perhaps as nice as the much more expensive WB animated maquettes.  Let's face it, the animated style isn't as hard to capture, but they've done a very nice job.

The face sculpt is particularly good, and the flow of the hair works great.

Paint - ***1/2
These are obviously hand painted, at least all the details, but it's very well done. 

Particularly important is the consistency of the black and the skin colors.  Often, there are light or dark areas, or uneven coverage with colors like these on large areas.  That's not the case here, and that is extremely important.

The face work is also good, with great paint ops on the eyes and earrings.  A couple of the lines are a little uneven - the hair line around the neck and shoulders, and the uniform lines around the legs - but overall the paint work is great.

Quality - **1/2
The heft of this statue is a little light, and part of that is the fault of the design.  It's not a major issue of course, but be very careful handling her - breaking her off at the knees would be extremely easy.

Design - ***
The design and pose of the statue are pretty good.  She's not completely static, with the one arm posed on her hip, and one leg slightly tilted, but she still fits nicely into the standard maquette style.

Her right hand is also slightly open, perfect for a lasso - go to the local fabric store and pick up some gold, decorative rope.

Value - ***
At about $75, these are a decent value.  Comparing them to the $125-$150 WB statues, they stack up nicely, although they are much smaller.  You can see a shot below with the WB Robin next to WW.

Overall - ***
I'm very happy with this maquette, and I'm glad that DC Direct is putting these out.  I've already got a nice spot on the shelf for all seven, and I'm really looking forward to the next release.

Where to Buy - 
You can find these this week at most comic shops.  You can also find them on-line:

- The best price I've seen is at Convergence Comics - only about $59 plus shipping!

- I picked mine up from Comics Infinity.  It was about $80 plus shipping.  I've always gotten great service there.  You  can also preorder the others for only about $72 each.


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford

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